BATH ABBEY TURRETS. THE first subject in the accompanying Plate represents one of the turrets at the west end of Bath Abbey as they appeared before the late changes, when pinnacles were substituted for these turrets. HOLY-WATER STOUP AT HASTINGS. The second subject in the Plate is a holy-water stoup which was disclosed a year or two ago, in the mutilated state represented, at the entrance of St. Clement's Church, Hastings, within the porch. After its mutilation, the recess in which it stands had been built up flush with the rest of the wall, and the whole thus attempted to be obliterated. We owe apologies to the correspondent who favoured us with the drawing that his accompanying letter is now mislaid. THE OLD FONT OF SCRAPTOFT, CO. LEIC. New Walk, LeiMR. URBAN, cester, Feb. 21. The village of Scraptoft is four miles from Leicester. Its Font, which I found embedded in nettles, was turned out of the church to make way for a ridiculous wash-hand-basin looking thing on a high stone pedestal. The old font was placed by a western wall, and served the villagers for many years as a cistern (Fig. 3). It was lately removed from its exposed situation, and placed in the belfry, where it now remains, a receptacle for ropes and rubbish. It is of early-English character, and the mouldings are very sharp and nearly perfect. The church has some good parts about it, particularly two windows of a Decorated character. There are good remains of an old cross in the church-yard. Yours, &c. J. F. New St. Spring MR. URBAN, Gardens, Feb. 12. IN your last month's Magazine you have given what the writer truly terms an "imperfect catalogue " of articles by various authors in the Quarterly Review, from its commencement to vol. XIX. with an intention to continue the catalogue. Now, as the contributions of my father Sir John Barrow to that incom parable work appear thus "curtailed of all fair proportion," and as I am in possession of a complete list of his contributions, I send you, with his permission, in a general way, the extent to which his assistance has been afforded to his late excellent friend Mr. Gifford, one of the best scholars and most able critics of the age. The writer of your former essay is no doubt aware that a committee of gentlemen, consisting of Mr. Canning, Sir Walter Scott, Mr. Hookham Frere, Mr. George Ellis, and one or two more, originated the Quarterly Review, and were, with the aid of Mr. Gifford, the chief contributors to the first two or three volumes. But as this could not long continue without further assistance, Mr. Canning urged my father strongly on this point, who was not disposed, either on public or private grounds, to refuse compliance with a request so reasonable from one who had always acted towards him with cordiality and kindness, and, as my father had just published a volume on China and the Chinese, he selected for his first essay of reviewing De Guigne's Account of the Dutch Embassy to Pekin, which appeared in vol. ii. No. 4, and from that time to vol. xix. inclusive, instead of 9 articles, which in your catalogue are correctly ascribed to Sir John Barrow, he actually furnished, as appears by my list, no less than 75 articles, and from the commencement to the end of vol. xxxi. (No. 62) the number he supplied amounted to 134. At this period Mr. Gifford's illness obliged him to resign his editorship. Mr. (now Sir John) Coleridge succeeded him for a short time, during which my father continued as a contributor, and also with Mr. Lockhart, the present editor, but to no great extent, having only supplied from No. 62 to No. 145 for January of the present year, 1844, 69 articles, the last of them being, as the first was, on Chinese affairs. Thus then the whole number supplied in the course of 35 years amounts to 203, of which you would not thank me for a detailed account, nor do I consider myself entitled to give it; but, if the following summary will answer your purpose, you are at liberty to insert it : IN the last number of the Gentleman's Magazine, a correspondent supplies the names of the writers of various articles that first appeared anonymously in the Quarterly Review. The article in the 4th volume of the Quarterly Review on the character of Pitt, which, on the authority of Lord Brougham, he attributes to Mr. Frere, I have always understood to have been an early composition of the late Sir Robert Grant, who died Governor-General of Bombay. He was assisted of course as to his materials by those who were personal friends of the deceased statesman, and who knew facts which,from Mr. Grant's then age, he could not have been cognizant of. Lord Brougham's guessit amounts to no more-is so far correct. If not written by Mr. Frere, nor by an intimate personal friend;" it was written by one who spoke in the name of those who were such. What is worth bestowing on another is worth reclaiming for the right owner, and it is a pity that Sir R. Grant's surviving friends do not set the matter right, especially as in a few years Lord Brougham's Sketches of Statesmen, into which this assertion has been transferred from the October number of the Edinburgh Review for 1838, will gather more authority from the lapse of time and the absence of all contemporary contradiction. It may be worth mentioning, in passing from this subject, that his lordship has in that article borrowed a classical allusion from the one in the Quarterly Review on the character of Pitt. I refer to this sentence, "These sketches as naturally begin with a notice of the means by which the great rhetorical combatants were brought up and trained and armed for the conflict, as Homer's battles do with the buckling on of armour, and other note of preparation, when he brings his warriors forward on the field." (p. 229.) The simile in this rather lumbering period will be found already used in Quarterly Review, vol. iv. p. 209. Yours, &c. D. S. ON THE ETYMOLOGY OF NORTH MEOLS. See p. 114. IT is a Celtic word, and obtains in the Gaelic, Erse, and British dialects :in Spelman's Villare Anglicum, 1656, the orthography is Meales.-Meols in Cheshire, Mells, Mill, Moyles, Mole, the Mole near Geneva, Molynton, Muley, Mulyntan, Mullian, &c. are all of Celtic origin, and descriptive of the respective sites. Gael. maoile, a heap:-maoilean, a brow, a bleak eminence :—maoilina, a summit, the ridge of a hill: maoillinneach, ridgy [hence the surname Molyneux.] : Gael. meall, a heap, a lump, a knob, a hill meallan, a little hill, &c.: meallanach, having hillocks, hills, &c. : mill, lumps, heaps, knots: meallach, hilly, knobby, bossy: meillach, meilleag, a thick lip, blubber lip. Gael. mul, a conical heap, a mound: muil, a promontory: mulan, a knoll, a hillock, a little heap. Gael. maolan, moilean, a little heap. Cambro-Brit. moel, a heap, a conical hill; towering; a bald top moeleg, baldness: moelyn, a bald pate; i. e. montis cacumen arboribus non consitum moelaig, tending to rise up : mwl, a lump, a mass : mél, the head. Cor. maol, moel, a bald top. It is suggested that North, in addition to Meols, has no reference to a cardinal point,-that it is a Teuto HAVING promised, in continuation of my communications to your magazines of November and December last, a few observations on the method and arrangement adopted by the Secretaries-General for conducting the business of the "Congres Scientifique de France," where, in my humble opinion, "they manage these things better" than in England, I now propose to redeem part of my proffered pledge. But, since comparisons are odious, I will here only remark, that, although the committees of our "British Association for the Advancement of Science" do annually report to its members the progress of particular sciences, and munificently recommend certain subjects for investigation and consideration at their subsequent meetings, these subjects are mostly treated of in essays fitter to be read in studious privacy than before large assemblies, however well-informed. Whereas in France (and I believe also in Italy and Germany) the questions proposed to the several scientific societies are so much more numerous than with us, that in the first place they occupy a session longer than ours by more than twice the number of days, and the business of each day lasts from 7 A.M. to 5 P.M.; secondly, these questions are diligently circulated many months previously to their discussion, among all classes likely to take any interest in them; but which discussion, although vivá voce, and a little warmer, and therefore perhaps more entertaining than with us, being generally founded upon written memoranda, is conducted with the greatest method and temper conceivable. The questions themselves are moreover not only upon topics of natural, physical, mathematical, and medical research, addressed to the more deeply learned; but, relating also to agriculture, industry, and commerce, appeal so strongly to the peculiar feelings of the inhabitants of those provinces wherein and about the Congress takes place, that the discussion of them, with others on the various subjects of history and archæology, moral philosophy, literature, and the fine arts, cannot but humanize the minds of the French people, and beget a certain taste and sentiment, to the want of which among us many of our national depravities may probably be attributed. Having thus briefly pointed out the method adopted in the scientific proceedings of the Continent, permit me formation of an Association for estabnow to congratulate you on the recent lishing in England* a similar taste to that just mentioned; you, Mr. Urban, having so many years liberally, strenu ously, and almost solely fostered and supported, by the information you have from time to time afforded us through the means of your drawings and descriptions of the antiquities and architecture of our native land, what little feeling has been hitherto developed identify us with, and personally, as among us towards such objects as it were, introduce us into the very habitations and company of, our predecessors. And I say congratulate, because I am sure that you, Sir, cannot but rejoice in the establishment of any Association, having, in common with yourself and the Society of Antiquaries, for its legitimate objects the investigation, illustration, and preservation of our ancient monuments, and by the promulgation of a just sense of their real utility imbuing all classes with that intelligence, and consequent happiness and good conduct, which our National Council for general education is now so laudably endeavouring to effect, and under whose avowed guardianship I hope soon to see all our national monuments enrolled. Yours, &c. W. B. *See under our Antiquarian Researches. -EDIT. |